up all idea of making a raid on this
still, Mr. Fitzgibbon. That has become a secondary object altogether
now. What we have to do is to find our way out of this. Hitherto I
have tried what we could do in silence. Now I shall give that up. Now,
sergeant, get the men together again. I will go ahead, and shall, if I
can, keep on descending. If one does that one must get out of these
hills at last. When I get about fifty yards I will shout. Then you
send a man on to me. When he reaches me I will shout again and go on
another fifty yards. When I shout send another man forward. When he
gets to the first man the first man is to shout and then come on to
me, and you send off another. In that way we shall make a regular line
fifty yards apart, and I don't think any one can get lost. Should any
one get confused and stray, which he can't do if he keeps his head, he
must shout till he hears his shouts answered. After a time if he
doesn't hear any answer he must fire his gun, and we must answer till
he rejoins us. But if my orders are observed I do not see how any one
can miss their way, as there will be posts stationed every fifty
yards. You remain till the last and see them all before you. You quite
understand? When each man comes up to the one in front of him he is to
stop until the next man joins him, and then move on to the man ahead."

"I understand, sir."

"They must not be in a hurry, sergeant; because moving ahead as I
shall, I shall have to move to the right or left sometimes so as to
make as sure as I can that I am still going down. Now, Mr. Fitzgibbon,
if you keep with me, between us we ought to find the road."

The plan seemed a good one, but it was difficult to follow. The fall
of the ground was so slight that Ralph and the officer often differed
as to whether they were going up or down, and it was only by
separating and taking short runs right and left, forward or backward,
that they arrived at any conclusion, and even then often doubted
whether they were right. The shouting as the long line proceeded was
prodigious, and must have astonished any stray animals that might have
been grazing among the hills. So bewildering was the fog that the men
sometimes went back to the men behind them instead of forward to the
men in front, and long pauses were necessitated before they got right
again. Ralph, finding the cause of the delays, passed the word down
for the first man to keep on shouting "number one," the second "number